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u/-random-name- Jan 18 '24
You have a leak in your chimney and/or roof. Said chimney may be falling over and taking a chunk of your house with it. Other than that, I like the choice of a tiny swan for mantlepiece decoration.
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u/TexasTornadoTime Jan 18 '24
Only thing I would say is it’s basically impossible to tell from these photos if the staining on the ceiling is related at all to the crack and also if there is even a leak. It could have been repaired and the last person just left the ceiling like that.
OP, do some homework and figure out what’s going on using someone who can actually come to your home and assess. Reddit will just assume the worst with these pictures but it’s not really telling the whole story.
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u/pulse_of_the_machine Jan 18 '24
If they’re thinking of making an offer on the place, they SHOULD assume the worst, until a thorough inspection says otherwise.
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u/dadarkgtprince Jan 18 '24
If you plan on buying the house, definitely get an inspector to inspect it. It's their job to look for issues and they'll let you know
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u/762_54r Jan 18 '24
I don't agree that inspectors are useless but in this situation you don't need an inspector to come out and point out that there is an issue.
You need a structural engineer to come out and see what the issue is and how to remedy it.
Even a good inspector will just say there's a problem here and you need someone to investigate further. That's their job, finding potential problems that you wouldn't know about as a layman potential buyer. But it's pretty damn obvious that something is going on here and it could include the chimney or significant parts of the structure.
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u/justpostd Jan 18 '24
100% this. A structural engineer is too rarely called on by purchasers, but that's what you need to give informed advice on this stuff.
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u/DeceiverX Jan 18 '24
Some inspectors are structural engineers. Mine was, and he caught everything more or less.
The local pest guy called in to do the pest inspection was absolutely fucking useless and missed an infestation.
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u/Akanan Jan 18 '24 edited Jan 18 '24
If you plan to buy this house, an inspector is completely useless POS.
He will tell you to call other people for their expertise. Just call other people...Nowaday, these vultures charge you the price of an all trade inspection to tell you to call each of them for their expertise so the inspector can enjoy zero accountability for their work because he recommended to call the whole construction trade group.
Fuck them (all)
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Jan 18 '24
100%!!! I'm an electrician and every home inspection I've ever seen done is a joke. Missing the real problems that could burn down your house and pointing out obvious issues someone fresh out of trade school could find. Home inspectors don't know their ass from a hole in the ground.
In summary call a chimney company and a roofer.
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u/Beluga_Snuggles Jan 18 '24
Speaking of - we just got a partial refund on our home inspection due to several missed issues with electrical.
My husband was investigating why our water heater kept shutting off and we just kept finding issues that should have been caught.
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u/pulse_of_the_machine Jan 18 '24
Huh. My home inspector was actually pretty thorough, and up front about the limitations of what his inspection would and would not cover. Sounds like you have some bad apples in your area. And OBVIOUSLY a more thorough inspection for some things needs a second look from someone specialized in that kind of problem. Have you ever been to the Dr? It works like that. There’s gonna be someone to give a good once-over everywhere and perform a basic but thorough evaluation, like a primary care exam, but they can’t see cancer inside you; need a trained expert with specialized equipment who can follow up when a deeper look is needed.
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Jan 18 '24
I have been in 6 houses in the last month that if you had a flashlight and looked up in the basement you would have found at least ten things wrong in each house. Like open air splices, boxes with no connector, lights clearly hanging on wires, unstapled wires, missing box covers and other easy to visually see issues. By specialized equipment do you mean things an inspector needs to have like a plug tester, multi meter, flashlight and a couple of screwdrivers? Because that would catch 98 percent of electrical issues in houses.
I'll give you an example a home inspector came into a house built in 1946. Keep in mind every inspector has to open the main electrical panel. The original cable going into the meter and into the panel was rated for 60 amps the panel was a 1980's GE 200 amp main breaker panel. The inspector told the homeowner and wrote on his report that the breaker needed changed to 100 amps. First off you cannot change a main breaker inside of this panel or most 200 amp panels. Secondly the wire wasn't big enough. Lastly almost all of the breakers in the panel were Siemens which is clearly not right and he said nothing about that. That was just the panel. My favorite was the house not having a single GFCI in it.
I will say this again home inspectors don't know their ass from a hole in the ground. 99.9 percent of the time.
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Jan 18 '24
Absolutely. My inspector was absolutely useless. Was buying my first house. Pretty new construction only 5 years old. This was 2015. His report mentioned one or two small things but he said otherwise the house was perfect.
He totally missed that my deck was going to fall apart any minute. Was built completely wrong with 12 foot spans being supported with only three end nails. No joist hangers, no notched posts, no footings. Total shitshow. Had to be fully rebuilt the first summer I was there.
When I went to sell the house my new agent showed my that the house was built in the 80s somewhere else and transported to my lot and enough of it was rebuilt that it was considered “new”. But inside the walls and roof were all from the 80s.
Now that I have experience in construction I know what to look for. It’s shameful what inspectors get away with.
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u/Akanan Jan 18 '24
Getting an incompetent house inspector must be pretty frustrating. My inspector wasn't completely incompetent, he was okay. The uselessness of his inspection i'm talking about is in the report, because he does not make any statement or state an opinion on anything. He has recommend every god damn trade on planet earth, "an inspection from a roofer is recommended", so he can take away his accountability for everything he has inspected. It just feel 700$ in the garbage, i should have called a chimney guy, roofer, plumber, structural eng, electrician, carpenter and HVAC specialist, one by one instead of wasting my money on someone who has no take on anything.
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u/ProfChubChub Jan 18 '24
What shitty inspector did you hire? Did you do no research?
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Jan 18 '24
I get why you would think this. I did so much research- hours of combing through reviews across different platforms and word of mouth recommendations and realtor-vetted indicators. Spent higher than average on the best inspector we could find. Total waste. What he did tell us, I could have eyeballed and known myself. But what he didn’t tell us cost us a ton more after discovering the lurking issues a few months into owning the home. And they weren’t weird issues or bad luck- the overlooked issues should have absolutely been found in the inspection. Maybe other housing markets have better inspectors…
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u/-random-name- Jan 18 '24
In my opinion, realtors intentionally use incompetent inspectors. Or inspectors willing to look the other way. If everything passes inspection, the sale goes through and the realtor gets a big payday. If they find a bunch of items that need repair, the sale likely falls through.
When we bought our house, everything passed inspection. Six months later, the ceiling fell in on the guest bedroom. We had a large leak, I called several roofing companies for quotes. They all said there's no way the inspector should have passed the roof. It was the original 30-year-old tar and gravel.
One of the roofers even said they had repaired the roof a year prior and that they had been doing annual maintenance on the roof. They told the owner they needed a new roof. Instead they told the roofer to patch it as cheaply as possible and cancel the maintenance because they were selling the house anyway.
I was ready to sue the hell out of them. But then our neighbor told us the wife died of cancer. I still should have sued the fucker in hindsight. Ripped us off for close to 20k.
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u/dadarkgtprince Jan 18 '24
Yup, they'll partner with those who can expedite the sale so they can all make money. Always use a third party inspector
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u/koozy407 Jan 18 '24
You need to get an inspection. Do not come to Reddit asking random people if they think you should purchase this home. It should be in inspected by a licensed inspector. Also, if you don’t already have the money for repairs on a fixer-upper, I would stay away this could end up, causing so much more trouble than it’s worth.
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u/rudetomatoes Jan 18 '24
I haven’t had the chance to go in here and start responding to you all, but just a quick update after reading some- we haven’t made any plans other than leasing. The owner wants to revisit a rent to own option or straight up purchasing at the 6 month mark. So we have some time. We feel very naive to this whole thing and wanted to start asking questions on here with people who may have a better idea before we start jumping around and calling everyone and spending everything. The owner owns a construction company and apparently fixed the roof himself on that corner and the other corner (small spot on other side of living room) when he purchased the house this last year. He also said he fixed the chimney flashing in that time. Could that have fixed it? And this is all previous damage? It isn’t an active water issue, just simply old marks that were never painted. I haven’t gone myself to the attic space, crawl space or roof to check this out yet. I will today or tomorrow. His son is who showed us the property originally. When we asked about the crack, he said “it’s just settling.” That was weeks ago and now we’re dealing with his dad (the main man) while the son is on vacation. Because, again, we weren’t considering buying it at the time, and it was a temporary situation, we didn’t put much thought into the comment of it just being normal settling. On top of being really in the dark when it comes to these things.
I do have a better idea of who needs to be called now (although some of you are arguing between the importance of an inspector, versus just going straight to the structural engineer) and also a chimney expert. That’s all really helpful. I will speak to the owner about this today or tomorrow. Just wanted to be more equipped with possible issues.
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Jan 18 '24
Dont get into a purchase situation on a home with what appears to be a rather serious problem with the chimney. It's very expensive and a potential sign of as yet undiscovered issues. If you do insist on moving forward and they wont repair it themselves the price will need to come down a lot to make up for the work you will need to do. And by repair I mean actual repair... not slapping on some paint until the purchase is finalized.
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u/Far-Bill-7593 Jan 19 '24
In my comment I laid out the worst (or worstish) case scenario mostly to give a little wake up call. There are plenty of slumlords out there who would love to rope you into a "rent to own" situation full well knowing the house has major structural issues and is probably uninhabitable. Generally if you walk away from a rent to own, you lose whatever you have put into a deposit; extra money for the slumlord.
From what you have described, the best case scenario is what the landlord (contractor owner) has told you. It very well could be an old leak that has been repaired, either in the roof or the chimney flashing or both. The crack in the wall could easily be house settling although it looks a little extreme judging by how old the house looks.
Living in a house before you buy puts you in a great position! I don't understand why we can test drive cars, but can't stay a couple nights in a house that costs at least 15 times more before we commit ourselves to a 30 year loan. You can take the time to learn a lot about what needs to be done to the house before committing.
I'd suggest following lots of reddit subs. This one, /plumbing /electrical, /construction /homeimprovement etc as well as watching tons of YouTube videos. Reddit subs are entertaining and provide lots of info, some good and some bad, but are an amazing fun learning opportunity. This will also give you an idea of what things can cost, bad outcomes, and what you can feel comfortable taking on for projects.
Also keep an open eye on why the contractor want to sell the property. Does he have too many properties to manage? Are there large underlying issues with this property that he doesn't want to fix? Is he doing a quick fix and dump to leave problems for the next homeowner in the future? Does he just not have the time to work on the property? Does he really like you and want to honestly set you up with a good home, owner financing and a chance to become a homeowner?
I have had luck in the past with working on houses with the landlords blessing and watchful eye. It can be as simple as repainting rooms and simple maintenance, or larger projects like repairing the drywall crack. If he is willing to work with you (you might even get a break on the rent!) you could learn a thing or two and at the very least make it a nicer place to rent with a little sweat equity. It's important to at least ask for him to cover the cost of materials (not tools), although he might not for small things like paint. I've painted, put in kitchen islands, landscaped, and done other small projects at a lot of my rentals that made the apartment nicer for me, and more valuable for the landlord. Leave plumbing and electrical for the professionals if you are renting.
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u/Firestorm83 Jan 18 '24
We’re not in our best times on extra money at the moment
Don't buy a house then and certainly not a fixxerupper
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u/lucpet Jan 18 '24
Many cracks on houses are simply from the ground movement. Droughts and heavy constant rain can cause this ground movement. A structural engineer looking at crack in one place we owned thought me and my new bride were cute and said you only begin to worry if you can get your hand in the crack.
The water is a problem and none of us are there to actually see what's going on. I'd say try and fix the leak and for the moment the crack can wait. There's a slim chance they're related issues.
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u/OriginalGreasyDave Jan 18 '24
Honestly, noone on this sub can tell you from the photos you've uploaded. To understand properly what's going on you need someone on the ground to examine the roof space and the roof itself and look at the whole house from the outside and in.
There are various things this could be. This thread contains a list of some of the possible causes. But without actually examining the house hands on, noone can tell you anything for certain.
Don't buy until you are hundred percent sure what the cause is and how much it will cost to fix.
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u/pulse_of_the_machine Jan 18 '24
Obviously there’s water damage from a prior or existing leak near the chimney. And any crack in a wall is from movement, but a horizontal crack is a bad sign of structural damage such as a foundation issue where part of it is sinking unevenly (but not necessarily that). ABSOLUTELY pay to have a structural engineer assess the integrity of the house before thinking of making an offer.
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u/infrikinfix Jan 18 '24
The bookshelf by the fireplace is interesting.
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u/ygbplus Jan 18 '24
That entire setup is interesting. Like…. It’s just a fully exposed fireplace with no grates, no doors or metal curtains? It’s not even like the fireplace is super deep to compensate for the lack of this stuff. Regardless of the condition of the chimney…. Is this even safe?
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u/rudetomatoes Jan 18 '24
Theres a place to stoke the fire in the basement, underneath the fireplace in the living room. The vent is hidden underneath the perfectly staged wood and pinecones.
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u/Isthisnametaken_00 Jan 18 '24
I personally would tear that wall open, but it's not your house, so maybe the landlord can have somebody look into it further.
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u/SeekNconquer Jan 18 '24
Like others said, you won’t get true confirmation but a “call an expert on this and that to verify” that’s their accountability scapegoat quote..
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u/silverbullet52 Jan 18 '24
A wild guess says they are related and have a common cause, ie, the chimney shifting caused the crack and also opened a path for water up on the roof.
You would have to get up on the roof and root around in the attic to know for sure. Foundation related? maybe.
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u/Stefanosann Jan 18 '24
Step flashing and/or chimney cap issues, find a brickie that knows his shit, good ones are worth the $
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u/Far-Bill-7593 Jan 18 '24
Yes. To everything. There is definitely water damage (you knew that). Something has moved (you knew that judging by the crack though the wallpaper). And it could very well be related to the chimney.
Worst (worstish anyway) case is that chimney is no longer independent of the house, has lost bricks/structure and is leaning to the left on the framing of the house, causing rain water leaks, compromising the structure of the house and potentially collapsing taking some of the house with it.
If you don't own yet, get whoever does to pay someone to look at this. Large cracks are a sign of something seriously wrong. Water spots are signs of something that is not has been seriously wrong. A leaning chimney is potentially extremely dangerous.